Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 81 - Chapitre 90

Xavier locked the facility down so fast the remaining staff barely had time to breathe.Every exit sealed. Every camera feed pulled. The silver bracelet taken from the masked attacker’s wrist was already in a sealed evidence bag on the metal table beside the Holloway pin.Kaelen’s voice was flat. “Confirmed. Official Wintersaint royal security issue. Serial number matches a batch assigned to the inner palace detail three months ago.”Someone inside the Crown had authorized the hit on Roman.I turned on Xavier so fast the collar pulled tight against my throat.“How long?” My voice came out low and shaking. “How long has the Crown been watching me?”Xavier didn’t look away. “Since the night you left my penthouse six years ago.”The words hit harder than any slap.“You knew.”“I knew they were interested.”“Interested?” I laughed, sharp and ugly. “They just dragged Roman out of a medical facility and left my father’s pin on the table like a fucking signature, and you’re telling me they’v

The private dining room at the Vanguard Grand Hotel was designed to intimidate. Between the dark wood paneling and the mirror-polished silver, it was a place where lives were quietly destroyed over expensive wine.I entered on Xavier’s arm, wearing the emerald green dress he had chosen. It clung to my curves and plunged low at the back, leaving only my heavy Gleipnir collar to cover the nape of my neck. With my red hair loose and a sharp swipe of lipstick, there was nothing soft about my appearance.The moment we stepped inside, the conversation died.Scott stared too long, Alistair judged me with a cold gaze, Freya looked annoyed, and Elias simply stared.He completely forgot to act polite for a few seconds before he finally caught himself.Xavier noticed.His hand on the small of my back pressed a fraction harder, thumb brushing the bare skin just above the dress. A silent, possessive reminder.Atticus was waiting in our saved seats, lookin

I couldn't sleep.The east suite was too quiet, the sheets too clean. Every time I turned, the collar around my throat felt heavier. Across the bed, Brie sat in borrowed pajamas, wearing the same worried look she'd had since the clinic was hit."Talk," she said. "And don't give me the 'I'm fine' version. You're vibrating."I stared at the ceiling. "I always liked him."Brie went still. "Xavier?""Yeah." The admission tasted like old regret. "Before Scott. Before everything."The memory came without permission.I was seventeen, standing in the training yard at Greystone Academy while every other student gawked. Xavier Beckett had just walked onto the field in black training gear, violet eyes sweeping across the crowd like he was already bored of existing among us.He was Freya's.Everyone knew it. The future alliance. The perfect match.I had been running drills with the other Omegas when my foot caught on uneven stone. I went down ha

The study stayed quiet long after our breathing slowed.Xavier finally pulled out, but he didn't move away. He stayed right there between my legs, one hand on the heavy collar and the other rubbing the silver bracelet on my wrist, almost like he had to touch them to believe they were actually there. The city lights hit his bare shoulders, showing the faint scratch marks from my nails. I sat on the edge of the desk in his shirt, my legs still shaking. The room smelled like both of us. For once, Ciel was quiet. He wasn't calm; he just looked stunned by everything that had happened."You kept the bracelet for six years," I said. My voice sounded rough. "You watched me from a distance. You let the Crown cage you. And you still put this collar on me like it was the first time you decided I was yours."Xavier's thumb brushed the moon charm. "It wasn't the first time. It was the first time I stopped pretending I could survive without the claim being visible."I looked at him. The violet i

The first thing I knew was the smell: cedar, old smoke, and under it, iron. Mine or his, I couldn't tell yet.The second thing was the collar. It had never felt this heavy before. It sat against my windpipe like a cold thumb, and every swallow reminded me it was there.The ceiling was wrong. Xavier's penthouse had glass and steel and a thousand lights. This was dark planks, close together, with a water stain in one corner shaped roughly like a hand. Silver light came through the window, the thin, bleached kind that doesn't belong to any hour of the day.The moon was full. Of course it was.I sat up too fast and my ribs let me know about it. A stripe of fire ran along my left side, exactly where the seatbelt had caught me. The room held a low bed, a chair, and a window full of black pines. Beyond the trees, a smear of city lights I didn't recognize. We were on the far side of Vanguard, where the towers gave up and the roads went private and s